The Open Senses Hub

At the heart of Open Senses Festival is the Open Senses Hub which will unify the entire festival and be the headquarters for the weekend.

The Trampery plays host to the hub and they invite all festival goers to come get information about the festival and all the events that will be happening over the weekend. Everyone is welcome to come along and take a multi-sensory journey from start to finish through audio-visual installations, thought-provoking films and inspiring talks. The Opens Senses Hub will be everyone’s sensory art home for the weekend so be sure to come along and get involved!

JUMP STRAIGHT TO:

Venue Information

239 Old St, London EC1V 9EY

The Line-Up

Inspired by the sense of touch, the series invites you to dive into the world of tactile engagement through explorations extending through dance and movement, psychology, synesthesia, VR technology, story-telling, multi-sensory installations and voice.

Please note that some sessions require a pre-booked ticket and some sessions and installations are absolutely free so please just come along!

SATURDAY 20TH MAY

Workshops

Seke Chimutengwende: Workshop: Mass, Material & Disturbance

10am - 4:30 pm The Ballroom Price: £25

Join in this exploration around the themes of his 2016 work Mass, Material & Disturbance through structured improvisation where as group you will make, explore and move. Culminates in an open public sharing. Seke's website.

LIVING COSTUME Showcase and conversation

10am - 1:30pm The Study Price: FREE

Artists Gabriella De Rosa and Richard Murphy open up a pop-up studio space inviting Open Senses audiences and explorers into their world of design. Inspired by the themes of urban eco-systems, Gabi presents her 'living clothing' in which she is developing a physical connection to nature exploring ways to offer an extension of our own body. The concept creates a tangible experience, that promotes London’s native wildlife and encourages all to become an active role within our environment. Richard will be sharing an interactive installation exploring light and traditional ritual manipulations of it. The studio door is open for a chat, to witness and experience.

Sensory film screenings

1:00pm - 3:30pm The Library Price: FREE

NAMELESS WOOD, 2011

Nameless Wood is a study of Wistman’s Wood, a unique ancient forest in Dartmoor, attempting to convey in moving image and sound aspects of its interior life. Director: Tereza Stehlíková & Soundscape: Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner

INSIGHT THEATRE

A showcase of some of the sensory theatre companies work with students exploring taste, written work and film

SENSE UK & BFI

Sense was awarded a grant by the BFI (British Film Institute), to enable deafblind people to take part in a series of accessible filmmaking workshops. The Accessible Filmmaking Project, delivered in collaboration with Kate Dangerfield from the University of Roehampton, saw ten weekly workshops take place across the country, each focusing on exploration and experimentation of film as a form of communication and expression. The project provided creative opportunities for people with sensory impairments to experiment with filmmaking techniques, test equipment for accessibility and improve access to low-budget film production and audio-visual media.

scent brainstorminG (Hélène MinarD)

2:00pm – 3:00pm The Study Price: FREE

What if we could develop fragrances through synesthesia? Hélène will explore the usage of multi-sensorial inspirations to create and translate the invisible world of scents. Through this presentation you will explore the role of an anosmic perfumer... Listen to your nose!

The Psychology of Synesthesia (DR. Clare Jonas)

3:30pm – 5:30pm The Library Price: £10

Dr Clare Jonas guides us through the fascinating world of Synesthesia - the neurological condition of the cross perception of the senses where some people can smell colour, see music and feel letters. In this informal conversation, Clare talks us through the hows and whys, how we can look at experiencing it ourselves and how it’s affected art through the ages.

The Multisensory Psychology of Wine

3:30pm - 4:15pm & 4:45pm - 5:30pm The Study Price: £15

How does wine tasting involve all our senses? In this interactive 45-minute workshop, you will learn not only wine-tasting techniques, but also how all the sense (beyond just smell and taste!) can influence our enjoyment and appreciation of wines.

Qian (Janice) Wang is a postdoctoral researcher at the Crossmodal Research Lab at Oxford University, a founding member of the cross-disciplinary movement Crossmodalism, and the two-term president of the Oxford Blind Tasting Society. Her research examines crossmodal correspondences between sound and flavour, with on a focus on how auditory stimuli can modify and enhance the way we perceive food and drink. Before coming to Oxford, Janice explored the intersection between music, food, design, and technology at the MIT Media Lab. In her spare time, she is a competitive blind wine taster but remembers to enjoy the occasional glass of wine just for pleasure.

Installations

RCA STUDENT interactive artworks

10:00am – 5:30pm The Drawing Room Price: FREE

Students showcase new design interventions at The Open Senses festival. Inspired to think about the audience as the artwork, eight students have been selected to create four new artworks that subvert, augment / draw attention to the way their bodies move through space.

Dreamachine

10:00am – 5:30pm The East Room Price: FREE

First shown in 1962 the Dreamachine was invented in Paris by painter and visionary Brion Gysin. The Dreamachine was the first artwork intended to be viewed with the eyes closed. The Dreamachine is a cylindrical spinning device with a light which emits Alpha waves which cause changes in the brain to produce sensory changes, swirling colour patterns and intense dreams.

“The Dreamachine is an aid to visionary experience” Aldous Huxley

Justjoseph

2:00pm – 3:00pm The Foyer Price: FREE

London based musician JustJoseph who is well know for creating textural electronic soundscapes around the streets of London including Broadway Market, Camden Town and Hackney Central will be performing to the crowds in Old Street at the Open Senses Hub. Not to be missed!

Sensory massage

2:00pm – 5:00pm The West Room Price: £20 for 20 minutes

Beatrice is a fully qualified Osteopath and Tui Na Massage Therapist since 2010, practising at the Balham Osteopathic Practice in London. She combines non-invasive soft-tissue techniques with Deep tissue and Acupressure massage, reducing body tension and enhancing a natural global healing. She has been treating people of all ages and backgrounds in France, Spain and England offering an adapted treatment to meet each person's needs and making her approach even more unique!

SUNDAY 21ST MAY

Workshops

INSIGHT Theatre presents Word On A Plate

10am - 1pm The Library Price: FREE

This creative writing workshop run by immersive story tellers In Sight Theatre. Using a guided sensory exploration of different foods as a stimulus, this workshop encourages participants to create short stories from the foods' point of view. Fully accessible, this workshop is designed for everyone. From experienced writers and story-tellers to those with a new curiosity

Kinesthetic Body Walks with Rebecca D’Andrea

10am - 12pm and 2pm - 4pm The Study Price: £9

Rebecca will guide a series of sensorial 'performative' walks, inviting a group of participants to dress up and ‘get lost’ together in the city. A new way of experience the thriving sensory landscape of Old Street.

The Great Invisible with Katherine Hall & Hamish MacPherson

1pm - 5pm The Ballroom Price: £15

A workshop exploring the sensory shifting of attention in care relations, using exercises which draw on movement and performance practices. You are invited to come and take part; to explore, support and witness each others perceptions and experiences of care in an open shared space.

SENSATE - A DANCE FILM BY JO CORK

2:00pm - 3:00pm The Library Price FREE

Join the Director Jo Cork and the Composer Bartosz Szafranski for a film intro, as they discuss their collaborative process and how the textured score evolved with the visuals as the film moved through the creation, filming and editing phases. Followed by the screening, and a post-film Q&A.

Sensing Potential: the Creative Potential of Virtual Realities and Embodiment

3:30pm - 5:30pm The Library Price £10

Join Kate Genevieve in conversation on the value of the creative element inherent in our living experience and its use within VR technologies.

'As VR culture develops, it is generally characterised as a spectacle machine, bombastically bullying the senses into submission to mind-blowing visuals [...] I want to explore what forms of improvisation, creative action and fresh wisdom can spring from working creatively with these technologies?' - Kate Genevieve

I scent therefore I am

4:00pm - 5:30pm The Study

A conversation to explore the belief that we can tap into our creative power, our sexual energy and understand our identity by exploring our relationship with our senses.

Our sense of self and identity is closely linked with our relationship with our senses. A particular song can evoke strong emotions and take us back to a particular time and place. A smell can remind us of a childhood memory. A touch can remind us of a particular lover. We tend to look at our senses in isolation, but what can be revealed if we bring them together, immerse ourselves in them? What impact will this have on our understanding of the relationships form and ultimately our sensual and sexual identities?

Installations

RCA STUDENT interactive artworks

10:00am – 5:30pm The Drawing Room Price: FREE

Students showcase new design inventions at The Open Senses festival. Inspired to think about the audience as the artwork, eight students have been selected to create four new artworks that subvert, augment / draw attention to the way their bodies move through space.

Dreamachine

10:00am – 5:30pm The East Room Price: FREE

First shown in 1962 the Dreamachine was invented in Paris by painter and visionary Brion Gysin. The Dreamachine was the first artwork intended to be viewed with the eyes closed. The Dreamachine is a cylindrical spinning device with a light which emits Alpha waves which cause changes in the brain to produce sensory changes, swirling colour patterns and intense dreams.

“The Dreamachine is an aid to visionary experience” Aldous Huxley

Sensory massage

10:00am – 4:00pm The West Room Price: £20 for 20 minutes

Beatrice is a fully qualified Osteopath and Tui Na Massage Therapist since 2010, practising at the Balham Osteopathic Practice in London. She combines non-invasive soft-tissue techniques with Deep tissue and Acupressure massage, reducing body tension and enhancing a natural global healing. She has been treating people of all ages and backgrounds in France, Spain and England offering an adapted treatment to meet each person's needs and making her approach even more unique!

In Stitch you - Harriet Riddell

Harriet Riddell is a Performance Mixed media Artist specialising in observational drawings in stitch. Her artwork responds to and interprets the transient world on to a permanent tapestry.

Travelling with her sewing machine, she sets up in public locations to draw in stitch. Observing the surroundings and people, she creates a narrative, recording the ‘here and now’. The experience she gains from the interaction with the environment feeds in to her stitching. Snippets of conversation and scraps of material are woven into the piece.

Her work is produced ‘live’ with an audience in the public eye. By observing and responding to her immediate surroundings I quickly and intuitively capture the moving world around her; she believes this absorbs life into the stitched lines.